Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Precision medicine is data-driven health care tailored to individual patients based on their unique attributes, including biologic profiles, disease expressions, local environments, and socioeconomic conditions. Emergency medicine (EM) has been peripheral to the precision medicine discourse, lacking both a unified definition of precision medicine and a clear research agenda. We convened a national consensus conference to build a shared mental model and develop a research agenda for precision EM. ⋯ A research agenda for precision EM, developed with extensive stakeholder input, recognizes the potential and challenges of precision EM. Comprehensive clinician training in this field is essential to advance EM in this domain.
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Academic emergency medicine (EM) is foundational to the EM specialty through the development of new knowledge and clinical training of resident physicians. Despite recent increased attention to the future of the EM workforce, no evaluations have specifically characterized the U.S. academic EM workforce. We sought to estimate the national proportion of emergency physicians (EPs) identified as academic and the proportion of emergency department (ED) visits that take place at academic sites. ⋯ Approximately four in 10 EPs practice in at least one clinical training site affiliated with an ACGME-accredited EM residency program, and approximately one in three ED visits nationally occur in these academic EDs. We encourage further work using alternative definitions of an academic EPs and EDs, along with longitudinal research to identify trends in the workforce's composition.
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Persons living with dementia (PLWD) experience frequent and costly emergency department (ED) visits, with poor outcomes attributed to suboptimal care and postdischarge care transitions. Yet, patient-centered data on ED care experiences and postdischarge needs are lacking. The objective of this study was to examine the facilitators and barriers to successful ED care and care transitions after discharge, according to PLWD and their caregivers. ⋯ ED care and care transitions for PLWD are suboptimal, and patient-level factors may exacerbate existing system-level deficiencies. Insight from patients and their caregivers may inform the development of ED interventions to design specialized care for this patient population. This qualitative study also demonstrated the feasibility of conducting ED-based studies on PLWD during their ED visit.